Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
Donald Trump signed an executive order suspending immigration. The “America First” president said the 60-day measure protects US nationals looking for work during the pandemic. It contains many exemptions, and will cause delays for some green card applicants.
Trump is telling GOP governors it’s too soon to lift lockdowns. He told Georgia’s Brian Kemp that he disagrees with his order to reopen some firms. Florida’s Ron DeSantis also announced a similar move.
The US ousted its virus vaccine chief. Rick Bright, the director of the agency in charge of developing a coronavirus vaccine, said he was pushed out for resisting the use of the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine that was embraced by Trump.
Under pressure, Harvard said it won’t accept financial help. Trump criticized the elite university for receiving $8.6 million under a relief fund created to support the US economy during the pandemic. Harvard planned to use the funds to help students in financial distress.
The UK begins human trials of a coronavirus vaccine. It’s one vaccine out of more than 80 currently in development around the world, six of which are already being trialed in humans. The UK government also started a mass survey to track coronavirus in the general population.
Japan and South Korea posted dismal economic data. Japan’s service sector activity plunged to a record low in April. South Korea’s GDP shrank 1.4% in the first quarter, the sharpest contraction since the 2008 financial crisis.
There’s a severe security flaw in millions of iPhones and iPads. A cybersecurity firm found a bug in the Mail app that has been exploited against high-profile users, and Apple is rolling out a fix. Meanwhile, Zoom is improving encryption for its much-criticized video chat app.
What to watch out for today
- Ramadan begins today in Europe and the US, and tomorrow in many Arab countries.
- The US House votes to create a committee to investigate the coronavirus response.
- EU leaders hammer out a shared financial response to the pandemic.
- The US reports another round of weekly jobless claims. Expect awful numbers.
- The NFL draft starts today, and with the lockdown, it might be a gamblers’ paradise.
- Intel, Southwest Airlines, and Eli Lilly report earnings. Hermès reported this morning.
China’s long-distance relationships
📲 US officials said China spread fake news to cause panic. Messages on social media—many insisting that the US was on the verge of martial law—were traced back to Chinese operatives.
🔬 The US secretary of state wants to inspect China’s laboratories. Mike Pompeo is sticking to his theory—which the WHO has thrown cold water on—that the pandemic began in a Wuhan virology lab.
📦 India is paying manufacturers to leave China. As global corporations rethink where they concentrate their production in the country, India’s eager to be their next choice.
💺 Meanwhile, China is ready to hit the road. Its five-day Labor holiday is expected to provide a mini-boom for tourism.
Charting how a census fares in a pandemic
Carrying out a census is hard enough as is, and in-person contact helps fill in much of the blanks in communities where the self-response rate is lower. But as the 2020 US census illustrates, it’s even more difficult to get good data during a pandemic, when knocking on doors isn’t exactly encouraged. That means people of color—already hit harder by Covid-19—will be underreported, which could lead to more equality issues down the road.
For Quartz members
- Most Americans find China threatening. Environmental impact tops the list of their anxieties.
- We’re endangering delivery workers… When we summon food, they expose themselves to potential contagion.
- …but we’re also giving them jobs. It’s a moral quandary, but here’s how we can respond.
We’re obsessed with Petri dishes
Before the world became one, the Petri dish was a brilliantly simple scientific tool. Little has changed about its basic design since the 1880s, although we no longer grow bacteria in a gelatin made from beef bullion. The versatile germ capsules have been used to study infectious diseases, help parents conceive, grow burgers in labs, and even create living works of art. Let’s get cultured with the Quartz Daily Obsession.
Surprising discoveries
Researchers found a long-lost medieval recipe for blue ink. Folium, a key ingredient, is derived from the fruit of a small plant that grows in Portugal.
Think you can hack an orbiting satellite? The US Air Force wants you to try, in order to find bugs and vulnerabilities.
There might be a healthiest way to brew coffee. A new study says filtered coffee prevents heart attacks, while unfiltered methods like French press worsen cholesterol.
Japan enlisted a mythical sea creature to help spread public health messages. Amabie has a fish’s body, human hair, and a bird’s beak.
SpaceX’s satellites are way too bright. Stargazers have been noticing the spacecrafts more than usual, and Elon Musk said the company is working on a fix.
You asked about susceptibility in seniors
If a person is over 65 with no underlying conditions and in good health, are they more vulnerable to Covid-19 than a person under 65?
Great question, reader. The short answer is yes. Just like our lungs, livers, and kidneys change with age, the conglomerate of cells that make up the immune system do, too. There tend to be fewer of them, which translates to fewer forces available to fight off a new infection. When they do respond to a pathogen, they’re more prone to setting off inflammatory responses—which can dangerously overwhelm the body, and ultimately do more harm than the virus itself.
These inflammatory responses in older adults are particularly common with coronaviruses in general, Vineet Menachery, an immunologist at the University of Texas Medical Branch, told Quartz in January. But scientists still don’t know the precise triggers for that immune overreaction.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, space hacks, and Amabie sightings to hi@qz.com. Get the most out of Quartz by downloading our app on iOS or Android and becoming a member. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Luiz Romero and Adam Rasmi.